U.S.: Top Hezbollah man caught in Iraq

July 2, 2007 9:00am

U.S. forces say they’ve captured a senior Hezbollah operative abetting insurgents in Iraq. U.S. officials say this represents Iran’s burgeoning role in the Iraqi insurgency. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Ali Mussa Dakdouk, allegedly a senior operative in Hezbollah, was captured on March 20 in southern Iraq while acting as a surrogate for Iranian forces fomenting unrest among Iraqi Shi’ites. Bergner, speaking Monday, said Dakdouk was a liaison between Iran and the group that carried out an attack in January on a government building in Karbala, Iraq. In that attack, insurgents disguised as U.S. military infiltrated security defenses and killed five U.S. troops. U.S. authorities say Iran is using Hezbollah, which launched a war against Israel from Lebanon last summer, to destabilize the region.